Will players be able to own and operate factories that produce (alien) tech and how does a factory get founded?asked by Marko Fowles

I'm not sure about alien tech, but you'll definitely be able to own and operate factories, which will be limited. A lot of the economic nodes (factories) will be NPC controlled, then say 10% might have the potential to be player controlled, that's part of what we'll expect players or organisations could own down the track, perhaps it might become their business more than trading or combat roles. So they'll be available, then over time as things expand, perhaps as a colony becomes more popular or bigger, there might be more slots/opportunities for economic nodes to be created or owned as well. As the game goes on, as we see more planets getting explored etc we might take them and add things to them, and just make the universe living, which is really our goal with all of this.